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From Martin Gregory and his blog, Things I Find in the Garbage (garbagefinds.com):

* Check local laws and regulations. Montreal seems to be quite lax about people going through trash, but other cities are not.

* The worst thing to do is rip apart bags and make a mess. Even if trash picking isn’t illegal, you could be fined for littering. Besides, it makes the work of the people who haul away the garbage more difficult.

* It’s best to untie trash bags and not rip them open. If a knot is really tight, though, you may have to tear a bag to see what’s inside. Tear it near the top and make as small a hole as possible. Do it properly, and the bag should remain functionally sound (for the purpose of throwing it into the garbage truck) and you may even be able to re-tie it.

* Sometimes you find lots of cool stuff somewhere and you want to be thorough — but the bags are full enough that it’s difficult to get to the bottom without emptying the bag on the street. Try to find a less full (or less interesting-looking) bag or can nearby and transfer the stuff you’ve seen (and don’t want) into it.

* Look for larger-than-average and interesting-looking piles of trash. Try to figure out what an average, mediocre pile of trash looks like — it comes with experience — and keep your eye out for anything that looks bigger.

* Bags that have odd, angular shapes are correlated with good garbage. Bags with a floppy, saggy shape are usually household waste.

* Try giving the bags a light kick. You might be able to tell whether a bag contains metal, books, dishes, or other materials, for instance, from the sound and feel of the bag. A nice tiebreaker, if you’re not sure you should bother opening the bag, is to lift the bag up. The heavier the better. Boxes in the trash are usually worth a look. And furniture is a good sign there may be good stuff in the bags. Be thorough. Sometimes the coolest things are small and fall to the bottom of the bag. “I’ve found a few awesome rings because I came across an interesting bag and made sure to go all the way to the bottom,” Gregory writes.

* Avoid bedbugs: Most garbage is bedbug-free, but not all of it. (If there is a mattress out with the garbage, inspect it: if it has bedbugs, you will see evidence.) If you find clothes you like, wash them — and dry them in an automatic dryer. Put shoes in a warm oven, about 170 degrees F for an hour or so. Bedbugs die at about 120 degrees F.

* In the end it’s a judgment call. Don’t let worry about bedbugs stop you from looking at trash: just be vigilant. And safe. Don’t put your hands anywhere where you’re not sure what they’ll touch.

* If you don’t know what it is, take it. Researching it will teach you something, for one. And the item could be worth some cash — or have value to someone else. Look up the item on eBay. When it comes to selling, “the best tool I’ve found is the ‘completed listings’ search on eBay,” Gregory writes. “With this, you can see what things have actually sold for. This isn’t to say that you couldn’t get a bit more (or less), but it’s a good benchmark of value.”

* Make it shine. “If you’re trying to sell something, make it look as pretty as possible for the photos … give it a good wipe and the buyers will be more interested.”

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